Fastest growth found in 'red' states

[Jon8503]

By: Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg, USA TODAY
Robust population growth continues to sweep the nation's Southern and Western states, according to estimates released Wednesday by the Census Bureau.

If the trend continues at its current pace, states in the Northeast and Midwest that have been population powerhouses since the 19th century will lose their dominance to Sun Belt states by 2010. (Related chart: Population and population trends by state)

New York, now the third most populous state, will likely be overtaken by Florida in five years. New Jersey, the 10th-largest state, could be passed by North Carolina in three.

"By 2010, none of the three most populous states will be in the North," says Robert Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech.

The USA's population on July 1 was 293.7 million, up 1%

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2004-12-22-sun-belt_x.htm

[illflem]

1. Just because they are growing faster

it doesn't mean they're getting redder. Much of the population growth is immigrants from the blue states looking for warmer climes.

[MrUnderhill]

2. Yes.... but people moving south get redder.

Of course... that's probably just the sunburn. :-)

[Dinger]

20. They SHOULD Get Redder . . . From Embarrassment

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Are prisons built and run by private industry a growing trend in the

red states?

[Clark2008]

4. Yes.

We're too poor down here to afford to build our own.

[ClintonTyree]

5. But where are those people coming from?

Blue States. Take Florida for instance. It started out being full of "Dixiecrats" who then turned Republican due to some serious brainwashing. Now, the influx of people into Florida is comprised of mostly Northerners who are more Progressive in their politics. Florida is slowly, but ever so surely turning back into a Democratic State. And these are not the Dixiecrats of old, they're real Democrats that have more Progressive ideas who will not be contaminated with Republican bullshit.
I say, "let the Southern States grow", it will only benefit us in the long run.

[9119495]

11. Agreed. Well said.

I also think the Southwest is growth territory for dems.

[tsuki]

12. Wrong. The influx I see is one hundred percent RED. Lots of money,

and boy do they want to keep it.

The Democratic Meetings down here are like old home week. We are slowly being driven off our homesteads to make room for more big developers bringing big money, RED money from the north.

In 1957, we were blue with 10 Electorial Votes, now we are red with 27 Electorial Votes.

[QC]

18. Same thing is happening here in Bay County.

In 1997, the average home price was $90k. Now it's been driven up to $230k by "snowbirds" fleeing the cold weather and the "developers" who cater to them by putting up condos everywhere they can find a bit of space with a view. And in my experience those snowbirds are not granola liberals, as so many here would like to think. Even after the northern influx that so many people at DU think will be our salvation, this county went for Bush by more than 2-1.

And let's not forget that the Atlanta suburbs that sent Newt Gingrich and Bob Barr to Congress were full of Yankee transplants.

[tsuki]

26. Hey QC, Bay County, Walton County here.

:hi:

The groups we have been getting lately give new meaning to scalawags and carpetbaggers.

There are many in the blue states that don't understand that we are getting their rejects.

[QC]

31. Well, since they're Yankees they're a higher order of being, right?

And we should be flattered to have them deign to live among us and enlighten us. That's what a lot of people here at DU assume, of course.

But, as you say, it's more like a second wave of carpetbaggers. They have helped cause the ruin of the coastline, thanks to overdevelopment, and they have driven up housing costs so much that people who actually work for a living can no longer afford to live here. They don't want to spend anything on schools, since their children all graduated decades ago. And yes, in their politics, they tend to be about as reactionary as the homegrown freepers.

[tsuki]

32. Maybe the blue states are the lucky one, they shipped all their

undesirables here.

I understand the Dixiecrats, fiscally conservative, anti-Federalistic, but this new bunch, meme. I do not understand. They want to make the rules for everyone but themselves.

They have totally ruined our environment. I was forced, with legal consequence, to remove my pine trees from the "scenic corridor." They want PALM TREES that are more socially acceptable to the imports. Palm trees are not native, and when I removed the 50 year old stand of trees, I destroyed the biomatter.

They have given new meaning to the Southern concept of Yankees.

[QC]

33. Scenic corridor? Where?

At least you have one. Here in Panama City, you can drive for long stretches along Front Beach Road and never get even a glimpse of beach, thanks to the monstrous wall of ugly condos that runs down the entire beach. Even the Miracle Strip was torn down to make more room for more of them. Pretty much all the mom & pop motels are gone--the day when working people could afford to spend a week here in the summer, as my family used to do, is long past. Strictly big bucks now.

Condomania has gotten so bad here that a while back the mayor actually worked out a deal that would involve giving city hall and the public library (which are at the marina) to a developer in exchange for a couple of new buildings and some swampland on the edge of town so that he could throw up another high-rise condo building. Public outcry paused that plan for now, but the developer and the mayor are going to try again. Goodness knows we don't have enough luxury condos for people who can drop a quarter-mil for a place where they only live for a few weeks out of the year.

This stuff has been really devastating for working people. Right now, the average per capita income in Bay County is $23,000 but the average home price has been driven up to $230,000. People are being pushed out of their own town--some of my students say that a lot of waiters and other service workers here are splitting trailers fifty miles inland and commuting, since there's practically no affordable housing anymore.

[tsuki]

34. The scenic corridor does not involve the beach roads, only the interior,

like 98 and 331.

I read about the Marina, and attended the last week of Miracle Strip. God, it brought back memories. The girls and I used to drive from FWB to Miracle Strip praying, "Lord, don't let me have a flat tire on this road."

Quarter mill is cheap here where a quarter acre, interior, can run as high as $250,000.

Developments down here are running daily busses to Alabama to get maid, waitress, service people.

[QC]

35. Oh, OK. Well, we want people to have a nice view from the Lexus, right?

And when I talk about a quarter-mil, I'm talking small condo. Actual houses out at the beach run up to a million and more. Even a tiny, junky one five or six blocks from the beach sells for more than 90% of the people who work around here can afford. Even here in Panama City, property anywhere close to the bay costs a fortune.

I have memories a lot like yours: the Miracle Strip, Goofy Golf, root beer in frosted mugs down at the Seahorse, long walks on empty, wild beaches. I'm from Alabama, and like most people there, we came every summer and stayed with the same people. I was here every vacation from the time I was a year old until I graduated from high school, so it feels like I grew up here. Never imagined that I would get to live here, but a teaching position came along and here I am. I love the place, which is why the orgy of greed I'm seeing upsets me so.

[tsuki]

36. It upsets me too when I see long time residents being run off their

homestead by freeper "code enforcement" thugs. 40 years on a piece of land with a small business on it that is suddenly no longer "scenic" enough for the fruh-fruh freepers.

His was the only light between the Old Frangista motel and Miracle Strip Park (the only place to be, the kewl place to be) back in the late 60's and 70's.

Now his place is a strip mall for the fruh fruhs and Miracle Strip Park a Condo.

Well nature will out, and with global warming, and the pollution (red tide) of the gulf, there are a lot of freepers that will be holding their puds in their hands.

I am depressed. See ya tomorrow.

[lastliberalintexas]

25. Yep

Ten years ago I didn't know a republican in Texas who was actually a native. Of course, now there are both kinds, but we're still getting quite a few RWers looking for a more politically friendly climate.

And even with our skyrocketing land costs, it's still cheaper to live here than in New England or the Pacific Northwest. And those republican snowbirds from Minnestoa and Wisconsin who vote down here might help those states go blue, but they sure make it even harder to go blue in a small county down here.

[tsuki]

27. Wish they'd never invented "air conditioning."

[formernaderite]

19. Unfortunately new arrivals will often bend to peer pressure ....

...within a community. This means going to church, upholdng their "conservative values" etc. I've watched this happen in my wifes family, after they moved to North Carolina.

[QC]

22. And an awful lot of them are wingnuts when they get here.

Not everyone from a "blue state" is a Democrat, you know.

[tsuki]

28. Not here. The ReThugs have taken over and implemented all

kinds of rules designed to run us off. We now have county committees for everything, and long blasphemous "prayers" that start every committee meeting. Most of us are now refusing to stand when they start.

Kool Aid International, out of CA (probably run out of CA,) is one of them.

[itzamirakul]

6. Population growth in New York City is

really on the rise. Young people looking for the fast life, glamour and careers, business execs and many, many immigrants. Wealthy foreigners purchasing large amounts of property. Most of New York City belongs to people who are citizens of other countries, i.e. the Saudis, Japanese, Chinese, Philipines, etc.

The strange thing is, that New York used to be dependably Democratic but this year had a 40% Republican vote and 50% Democratic vote. That is really scary..

[SweetLeftFoot]

10. NYC

Wealthy foreigners purchasing large amounts of property.

Like Rupert Murdoch dropping $US44 mil on a penthouse.

[itzamirakul]

14. Murdoch is a citizen now...

as much as I dislike him and the way he has taken over the media and led the way to dishonest journalism.

The foreigners I speak of are people who DO not have American citizenship, do not live in this country and who own more of it than its own citizens own.

[SweetLeftFoot]

15. That's right

I forgot Rupe had hopped the pouch all those years ago.

[tsuki]

29. Question? Where does he bank?

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

7. Florida will have three less people next summer.

My family will be moving back to the New England area. We don't like Florida.

[BlueEyedSon]

8. Poor & stupid people have more babies. nt

[tsuki]

13. If you think we are stupid enough to have grown from 10 to 27 in 47 years

years by breeding, you need a reality check.

[Sirveri]

9. Makes me wonder if it's abstinence only education in action. nt

[banjoman]

16. moving south

most of moved south when we realized that when politicians kept talking about taxing the "rich", they would eventually get to us. you can't keep lowering the bar on who the rich are. in michigan it got to the point where just about anybody making more than 20K per year was rich. life in the south isn't perfect, but at least you have a chance at moving up in the world.

[Ripley]

17. Okay, I have to break my self-imposed moratorium for this shit.

1. Michigan considers $20,000 "rich" and taxes you to death? Bullshit.
2. You have a chance at moving up in the world in the south? Where do you work? The poverty rate in the richest county in Alabama went up 25% in the last two years. The only way you are going to move up in the world by moving to the non-Union Southern states is if you are already wealthy.

While it is true I ended up moving to the sunbelt for money (albeit a German manufacturer, not a Southern company), and yes the taxation structure actually benefits homeowners (just about zero property taxes), the taxes on food, medicine, gasoline and all goods and services is so progressively high, it does not let the MAJORITY of citizens "move up in the world."

[itzamirakul]

21. And their "zero taxes" mean they have less

to spend on welfare so that far more of the poor in those states, regardless of race, are on the dole and receiving their welfare checks from the taxes paid by the working poor in the northern states. Yet they are the first to cry "welfare queen" and "welfare cheat" and point to someone in the north.

[snippy]

24. Republican Tax Cut Monkeys are all just

republican welfare queens. They want all of their government benefits to be free or paid for by someone else. Someone needs to explain to these republican welfare queens that government costs money.

[snippy]

23. Like Bush, his followers are cowardly liars with no honor or integrity.

I understand why Bush followers are cowardly.

I understand why Bush followers are liars.

I understand why Bush followers have no honor.

I understand why Bush followers have no integrity.

What I do not understand is why Bush followers are so proud to be cowardly liars without honor or integrity.

[EVDebs]

30. Maybe they meant 'fastest RATE of growth'...

A look at the maps at




which shows a nighttime shot of the US which mimics the population density map shown at




Now compare these population densities with the 2004 election map by county from Sean Hannity no less at



and you discover that the Blue States are really where the population is growing fastest !

In fact, the US government realizes this and has NOAA site related to coastal population shows that over half of the US population is living within our coastal counties...which are mostly BLUE STATES at



( The main site gives more information on Coastal Counties http://spo.nos.noaa.gov/projects/population/population.html )

along with

"COASTS IN CRISIS"
by DON HINRICHSEN
'Coasts and the Population Bomb'
http://www.aaas.org/international/ehn/fisheries/hinrichs.htm

ScienceNews article at "Coastal Surge: Ecosystems likely to suffer as more people move to the shores"
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040327/fob5.asp

It must be something primordial, but people worldwide seem to want to live within 30 or so miles of the coastlines !